Videos of 1930s Surgeries on the Brain, Belly and Tonsils

In this collection of silent films from the 1930s, surgeons from the British Medical Association demonstrate how to remove an enormous ovarian tumor, excise tuberculosis from the brain and deliver a baby by Caesarean section.

Some aspects of the 1930s operating room don’t look so different from what you might see today — scalpels, forceps and patient draping haven’t changed much — but of course there’s no electrocautery device to stop bleeding or laparoscopic camera for minimally invasive surgery. And today you might get in trouble for dropping your surgical instruments in boiling water! The videos are part of a collection of historical images and films hosted by the Wellcome Library and recently made available to the public via their YouTube channel.

WARNING: Some of these videos are graphic, and not for the faint of stomach.

Removal of a Tuberculoma From the Brain (1933)

In this video, surgeons perform brain surgery to remove a large tumor caused by tuberculosis, called a tuberculoma. These non-cancerous growths result from infection with the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which can cross the blood-brain barrier and end up in the central nervous system. Before the advent of antibiotics to treat tuberculosis, tuberculomas were fairly common and resulted in symptoms similar to a brain tumor, such as severe headache, seizures and cognitive changes. Today, tuberculomas in the brain are extremely rare, except in immunocompromised individuals.

The clip opens with X-rays of the patient’s head and text explaining how the tumor has affected the patient’s brain. After surgeons remove the top of the patient’s skull, they carefully dissect the tumor away from surrounding brain tissue. The patient makes a complete recovery and is left with only a few minor movement problems, as shown at the end of the video.

Here, surgeons cut out a 25-pound, fluid-filled ovarian tumor, called a cystadenoma, from a patient who looks nine months pregnant. The doctors make a long incision down her swollen abdomen and gradually separate the tumor from the fallopian tubes and ligaments that attach it to the pelvic cavity. After “delivering” the tumor, the doctors puncture it and take a sample of the fluid, causing the cyst to partially collapse. In a later segment of the video, the surgeons drain 2.5 gallons of viscous fluid from the cancerous growth. No mention is made of the patient’s recovery.

Surgeons deliver a baby by C-section because the mother’s pelvis is too small. The video opens with an explanation of the origin of the name “Caesarean section,” which comes from the ancient Roman practice of cutting out the baby after a mother had died in childbirth. Today, most C-sections are done with the mother awake but numb from an epidural, but in the 1930s, patients were put completely under. This patient gets heroin hydrochloride, an unidentified “gas” and oxygen.

After making a 4.5-inch midline incision, doctors deliver the baby feet-first. A later segment shows a nurse holding the crying baby, and also emphasizes the importance of not accidentally leaving surgical swabs inside the abdomen.

In this video from Austria, doctors set a fractured collarbone by pulling on the arm and applying a large splint. At the beginning of the segment, a very unhappy-looking patient demonstrates his displaced, sloping right shoulder. Physicians numb the shoulder using local anesthetic and pop it back into place with a sharp jerking motion. A few weeks later, the patient demonstrates full recovery and complete range of motion of his shoulder.

In this two-part video, doctors demonstrate various techniques for sterilizing operating room equipment in the 1930s. The first segment includes explanations on how to kill bacteria using boiling water, boiling oil, a naked flame, antiseptics, gas vapor and dry heat. Midway through the video above, a nurse demonstrates proper hand washing technique, which includes scrubbing between each finger and up to the elbows, and a doctor shows how to put on a surgical gown. (Check out his funny curtsy at 3:10.)

Here, surgeons remove a young child’s tonsils and adenoids. Doctors used to do this procedure routinely because they thought it reduced infection; now it’s mostly done for patients with sleep apnea or recurrent bacterial infections that don’t respond to antibiotics. The video demonstrates how to prepare a child for surgery and control bleeding while operating in the mouth.

Surgeons repair an indirect inguinal hernia, which is an outpouching of abdominal contents through the inguinal ring, a small passage that normally closes during embryonic development but sometimes reopens to cause a hernia. In this segment, the operation is done using an open abdominal incision, although many hernia repairs today are done laparoscopically by inserting instruments and a surgical camera through small holes in the abdomen.

Here’s The Thing With Ad Blockers

We get it: Ads aren’t what you’re here for. But ads help us keep the lights on. So, add us to your ad blocker’s whitelist or pay $1 per week for an ad-free version of WIRED. Either way, you are supporting our journalism. We’d really appreciate it.